Posts
May 22, 2013
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9:11 PM | 10 ul microsyringes
A list of small, useful things (links):John has a great explainer on how to drill a well the right way.Lisa Balbes talks about how most people don't know what to expect in their first job.Andre the Chemist thinks you should move for your first job.Ken Hanson posts on proposals in his great series on how to get a faculty position. This Dow Lab Safety Academy is interesting; I think it deserves a closer, more critical look than it's gotten so far. Andrew Bisette's 9th #chemclub
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My sincere apologies with the relatively quiet posting recently. I do indeed have a Process Wednesday post in the works, but I found this to be such an interesting framing of the issue by Alyssa Rosenberg, commenting on Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In and her approach to looking at childcare costs that I had to post it:Similarly, Sandberg suggests a different way to look at the cost of child care. Rather than considering nannying or preschool costs as a dilemma, something that wipes out a woman’s
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12:39 PM | A science of intentional change
If nothing else, David Sloan Wilson is ambitious. He’s been pushing the multilevel selection wheelbarrow with not much support for close to forty years (although support seems to be growing in some circles). And over the last couple of years, he’s been increasingly promoting the idea of a evolution-centred “science of intentional change” that will [...]The post A science of intentional change appeared first on Evolving Economics.
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This is a guest post by Marc Joffe, the principal consultant at Public Sector Credit Solutions, an organization that provides data and analysis related to sovereign and municipal securities. Previously, Joffe was a Senior Director at Moody’s Analytics for more than a decade. Note to readers: for a bit of background on the SEC Credit Ratings […]
May 21, 2013
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This is a guest post by Adam Obeng, a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Department at Columbia University. His work encompasses computational social science, social network analysis and sociological theory (basically anything which constitutes an excuse to sit in front of a terminal for unadvisably long periods of time). This post is Copyright Adam Obeng 2013 and licensed under […]
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4:11 PM | Not a surprise for some reason
Imagine reading an article on private spaceflight in New York magazine and coming across this interesting tidbit (emphasis mine):Virgin Galactic’s CEO is a 39-year-old American named George Whitesides, who I met one evening after ISPCS. The son of a legendary chemist, he is himself a nonscientist who decided to devote his life to space one night in Tunisia, while studying women’s rights in the Islamic world on a Fulbright scholarship, when he found himself walking on the shore of the
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3:05 PM | Daily Pump Trap: 5/21/13 edition
Good morning! Between May 16 and May 20, there were 51 new positions posted to the C&EN Jobs website. Of these, 2 (4%) were academically connected and 44 (86%) were from Kelly Scientific Resources.Athens, GA: Noramco (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) is looking for a B.S./M.S./Ph.D. senior analytical chemist; 6+ years experience desired.Aurora, Illinois: Aurora Specialty Textiles Group is looking for a M.S. chemist to be a senior coatings chemist. 10+ years experience desired.Classic
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2:40 PM | Ivory Filter Flask: 5/21/13 edition
Good morning! Between May 14 and May 20, there were 4 academic positions posted on the C&EN Jobs website. The numbers:Total number of ads: 4- Postdocs: 0- Tenure-track faculty: 1- Temporary faculty: 0- Lecturer positions: 2- Staff positions: 1- US/non-US: 3/1Abu Dhabi: New York University Abu Dhabi is looking for an assistant instructor for general and organic chemistry:New York University has established a campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and invites
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May 20, 2013
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My short answer: no.
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3 true things and one awesome inconsistency that I was glad to see in Beth Halford's article on the current state of the chemistry postdoctoral fellow in this week's C&EN:It's the job market: From Kelly O. Sullivan, a very, very good point:“The challenge that postdocs are facing is probably the same that everyone is facing: a weak job market,” says Kelly O. Sullivan, who manages the Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and is the
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Also from this week's C&EN, a report by Jeff Johnson that the National Academy of Sciences is going to look into academic chemical safety:Safety in academic and other nonindustrial chemical research laboratories will be the focus of a yearlong investigation by a National Academy of Sciences committee, which held its first meeting last week in Washington, D.C. The study will consider how safe lab practices can be promoted in academic and government labs, explained H. Holden Thorp, committee
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From this week's C&EN, an article on BASF by Alex Scott that might be good news for U.S. chemical-industry jobseekers over the next few years:The Americas and Asia will each get 25% of BASF’s research budget and scientists by 2020 under a plan being advanced by Andreas Kreimeyer, BASF’s board member responsible for research. The company now conducts most of its research in Europe, but to get closer to its customers and work with the world’s best scientists, it must venture outside the
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12:33 PM | Sexual selection and entrepreneurship
From Neil Niman’s article Sexual Selection and Economic Positioning: If economic agents earn the market clearing wage or the normal rate of return, it becomes difficult for an individual to stand out relative to one’s peers. Yet it is the ability to distinguish one’s prosperity and prospects that lead to reproductive success—a level of success [...]The post Sexual selection and entrepreneurship appeared first on Evolving Economics.
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11:03 AM | Money, food, and the local
I take the Economist into the bath with me on the weekend when I have time. It’s relaxing for whatever reason, even when it’s describing horrible things or when I disagree with it. I appreciate the Economist for at least discussing many of the issues I care about. Last night I came across this book […]
May 19, 2013
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The famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr once humorously observed, "Predictions are very difficult, especially about the future." And so, as the world considers yet another rosy oil supply forecast, this time from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), it is worth reviewing the agency's record.Back in the year 2000, the IEA divined that by 2010, liquid fuel production worldwide would reach 95.8 million barrels per day (mbpd). The actual 2010 number was 87.1 mbpd. The agency further
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It’s Sunday, which for me is a day of whimsical smoke-blowing. To mark the day, I think I’ll assume a position about something I know very little about, namely real estate. Feel free to educate me if I’m saying something inaccurate! There has been a flurry of recent articles warning us that we might be […]
May 18, 2013
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11:23 AM | Aunt Pythia’s advice: not at all about sex
Aunt Pythia is yet again gratified to find a few new questions in her inbox this morning. Sad to say, today’s column really has nothing to do with sex, but I hope you’ll enjoy it anyway. And don’t forget: Please submit your questions for Aunt Pythia at the bottom of this page! —— Aunt Pythia, […]
May 17, 2013
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5:12 PM | Hey, that's not the right data!
Some of you may have seen this James Hicks article in The Scientist, where he shows a graph that seems to correlate high notices of retractions with low NIH grant success rates. Interesting idea, right?Unfortunately, Nature reporter Richard Van Noorden (the collector of some of the data used in the graph) notes that Professor Hicks did not use the most relevant data for his retractions (i.e. US retractions, funded by the NIH) for his graph. When you do, the correlation is not nearly
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From international political economy professor Daniel Drezner, a comment on being paid honoraria for speaking in China:1) From a personal perspective, as the occasional visitor to China, I can confirm the wads of cash thing -- but it's a bit more complicated than Barboza suggests. First of all, for U.S. academics at least, the payment isn't in renminbi, but in U.S. dollars. Renminbi is sometimes dispensed for things like per diem reimbursements, but not for honoraria. After all, officially, the
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12:18 PM | A week of links
Were the Victorian’s cleverer than us? Patrick Rabbit pulls it apart. Kevin Mitchell has a shot at the new eugenics. Razib responds. Read the comments on both. Peter Singer critiques conspicuous consumption. The example is similar to one Robert Frank uses in Luxury Fever, but I still like it. Gender identity and relative income within [...]The post A week of links appeared first on Evolving Economics.
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11:06 AM | Dow at an all-time high, who cares?
The Dow is at an all-time high. Here’s the past 12 months: Once upon a time it might have meant something good, in a kind of “rising tide lifts all boats” sort of way. Nowadays not so much. Of course, if you have a 401K you’ll probably be a bit happier than you were […]
May 16, 2013
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9:05 PM | Awesome, enraging articles to read
This day has been busy (as you might be able to tell), but a few things to talk about:This C&EN article by Beth Halford on the current state of the postdoc and the problem of chemists taking multiple postdocs is definitely worth a read and worth further comment. I love the quotes from senior industrial folks; it'll be great to see how their opinions match with how their companies have been hiring. Derek Lowe has a couple of great comments today:The first, about an Atlantic article
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Nick Palmisciano is a former infantry officer in the U.S. Army. At the start of an interesting set of comments about being a new Army infantry officer (engagingly titled "Don't Be A Douche"), an interesting comment on caring about your people:2.) Your guys are more important than your career. This ties in nicely with my last point, but it is worthy of its own bullet. You’re all going to be civilians someday, no matter how much you love the military or how long you serve.
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1:43 PM | Daily Pump Trap: 5/16/13 edition
Good morning! Between May 14 and May 15, there were 15 jobs posted on the C&EN Jobs website. Of these, 2 (13%) were academically connected and 9 (60%) were from Kelly Scientific Resources.Zeroes!: Vertex (Cambridge, MA) continues its run of hiring with a B.S./M.S./Ph.D. chemical development position. 0-3+ years experience for Ph.D.s, 5+ for M.S., 8+ for B.S. positions.San Jose, CA: Energy Storage Stealth is a startup, doing something very interesting that I can't quite tell what it is...:We
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11:09 AM | Star Trek is my religion
I was surprised and somewhat disappointed yesterday when I found this article about Star Trek in Slate, written by Matt Yglesias. He, like me, has recently been binging on Star Trek and has decided to explain “why Star Trek is great” – also my long-term plan. He stole my idea! My disappointment turned to amazement […]
May 15, 2013
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12:09 PM | IQ is an artificial construct
For lack of time to write a post laying out my complete thoughts on Jason Richwine’s thesis on IQ and immigration (it’s the sort of topic where if you want to engage, you need to engage fully) and doubt whether I have anything new to add, I’ve been waiting for a media piece that would [...]The post IQ is an artificial construct appeared first on Evolving Economics.
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11:09 AM | Salt it up, baby!
An article in yesterday’s Science Times explained that limiting the salt in your diet doesn’t actually improve health, and could in fact be bad for you. That’s a huge turn-around for a public health rule that has run very deep. How can this kind of thing happen? Well, first of all epidemiologists use crazy models to […]
May 14, 2013
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I would like to hear people's opinions about advertised academic (i.e. non-industrial) postdoctoral positions. Isn't it a truism to say that most of the desirable postdoctoral employers do not advertise, yet still manage to fill their labs with armies of fellows?Aren't advertised academic positions basically saying, "We can't find anyone who wants to work for me unbidden?" Is there anything wrong with that? Assistant professors and such gotta start somewhere, right?So it might be good for the
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3:22 PM | Wrong sample causes retraction
From Retraction Watch, a very interesting explanation from a Chinese group (Yang, UST-China, Hefei):We recently published a paper entitled “s-wave superconductivity in Ba-doped phenanthrene as revealed by specific-heat measurements.” The sample studied in that paper as Ba1.5-doped phenanthrene is now found to be La-doped phenanthrene. This error was caused by mislabeling the La-doped phenanthrene sample as Ba1.5-doped phenanthrene. During our experiment, we synthesized La- and Ba-doped
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3:13 PM | Daily Pump Trap: 5/14/13 edition
Good morning! Between May 9 and May 13, there have been 59 new positions posted on the C&EN Jobs website. Of these, 5 (8%) are academically connected and 28 (47%) were from Kelly Scientific Resources.This job is probably awesomer than yours: From NASA (Greenbelt, MD):The Astrochemistry Laboratory, in Greenbelt, Maryland, is seeking a research scientist to provide expertise in studies of trace materials in complex organic compounds of astrobiological and cosmochemical interest. You
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